Smallville actor Allison Mack has been sentenced to three years in prison for manipulating women into becoming sex slaves for the leader of the cult-like NXIVM group.

Mack had pleaded guilty to the charges that accused her of helping create a society of brainwashed women branded with leader Keith Raniere’s initials.

“I made choices I will forever regret,” she told a New York court, crying as she described how she was consumed with “remorse and guilt”.

Mack is best known for playing young Superman’s friend in the Smallville series.

In a letter to the court last week, she wrote: “I am sorry to those of you that I brought into NXIVM.

“I am sorry I ever exposed you to the nefarious and emotionally abusive schemes of a twisted man.”

Mack would normally face between 14 and 17 years but prosecutors agreed she should get less because of her cooperation.

The 38-year-old was a key part Raniere’s inner circle and the group attracted millionaires and actors.

Prosecutors said Mack was a “master” for “slaves” who she told “to perform labour, take nude photographs, and in some cases, to engage in sex acts with Raniere”.

The NXIVM group (pronounced nex-ee-um) was set up in 1998 in Albany, upstate New York, and purported to be a “personal and professional development” company.

Raniere, 60, fled to Mexico with Mack and others as law enforcement closed in, but they were both arrested in March 2018.

During his trial, prosecutors said NXIVM was a cover for a sex cult that manipulated and brainwashed dozens of victims, putting some on starvation diets.

He was sentenced to 120 years in jail.

Clare Bronfman, the half-British daughter of a Canadian billionaire, was also sentenced to nearly seven years in September 2020 for her role with the group.

Mack, as part of her cooperation, described how Raniere had encouraged “the use of demeaning and derogatory language, including racial slurs, to humiliate ‘slaves,'” according to official papers.

She also handed over a recording of him talking about the branding.

It it, Raniere said it should involve “hands probably above the head being held, almost like being tied down, like sacrificial…” and that the woman “should say, ‘Please brand me. It would be an honour.’ Or something like that.”

Jessica Joan, a former member of the group, was in court for Wednesday’s sentencing and rejected Mack’s apologies.

“She can blame Keith all she wants but she is a monster cut from the same cloth,” she told the judge.

“Allison Mack is a predator and an evil human being.”

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